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Bennachie – September 2017

Only getting three rides in over 2 weeks is not a good average, but still made them count. I always like starting off at Pitfichie, I know the trail well and it’s a god place to get a feel for the bouncy bike again, with enough pedalling to get your legs going. The first climb, ‘Hangover Hill’ was a complete slop fest, it’s a punchy climb in the dry nevermind the wet, the descent off Greenhill was also a mess, but actually felt good to get the bike dirty. The rest of the trail was as normal, with me trying to chase down Dad on the unstoppable E-bike, then got the new brakes properly bedded in on the descent. We came back over Greenhill to check out a new section of trail that was made for the Enduro there at the start of the year, disaster. That quickly turned into an uncontroled slide between trees, but would be good in the dry… We would get back up to Pitfichie again, but only for a quicker loop.

Second ride was a solo one up Bennachie. Starting from Rowantree, cross country to the visitor centre, then up the Land Rover tracks at Bruntwood Tap to Oxen Craig, then crossing over to Craigshannoch and descending back to the carpark. Bennachie is great on a weekday as there are nearly no walkers out and you can pick up some good pace which makes the descent flow much better.

Well thats a typicall couple of weeks riding in Scotland, not happy I didn’t get over to Kirkhill near Aberdeen or Scolty in Banchory, but I got enough riding done to scratch the MTB itch for the next 6-10 months before I’m back in Scotland again.